Enlightenment: Attaining the Dao at Age 8

’Perhaps the old man was right. Besides increasing my own strength, finding the legacy the Human Emperor left behind is the best option right now.’

Seeing Li Chang’an lost in thought, the old man didn’t press him. He waited a moment for Li Chang’an to come to his senses before speaking again. “Actually, if you have nothing urgent, there’s no need to rush off. The environment in Hell is harsh, but this is where the Human Emperor fell. Dense Energy permeates the air, which should help strengthen your physique and increase the speed of your so-called Martial Dao cultivation!”

After a moment of consideration, Li Chang’an nodded. “If none of you mind, I’d be happy to stay for a while.”

In the past, he had spent a full two hundred years cultivating on the outskirts of the Fire Realm’s core, absorbing the Energy from its periphery to hone his Martial Arts Realm to the Grandmaster Realm.

And now, the violent Energy within Hell was several times more potent and abundant than that of the outer Fire Realm.

Li Chang’an had no intention of missing such a great opportunity to rapidly increase his strength.

Seeing that he agreed, the withered old man led him to a flat, quiet stone at the bottom of the cave. He gestured toward it. “This is where the Energy is most concentrated. If you wish to cultivate, do it here.”

Li Chang’an glanced at the stone. It was stained a dark red, its surface looking as if it were coated in blood that had yet to dry. The sight was rather sinister, and it made his skin crawl.

But since entering this Hell, Li Chang’an had seen far too many unsettling and sinister things. He no longer even had the energy to make a snarky comment.

He took a few steps forward to sense the area. After confirming that the Energy where the withered old man had pointed was indeed extremely dense, Li Chang’an didn’t hesitate. He walked right over, sat down cross-legged, and began his cultivation.

According to the Cultivation System he himself had founded, he was now at the Grandmaster Realm. In theory, his strength should be comparable to an Incense Fire God from the Incense System.

’But I can’t be certain of my actual combat strength. I have no experience fighting the Divine Spirits of the Celestial Realm, after all.’

…

For the next two hundred years, Li Chang’an cultivated in Hell. During this time, because he had taught the Martial Arts Cultivation Method to the people of Hell, the once deathly silent world began to liven up.

These mutated humans of Hell were inherently formidable, possessing powerful and stable physiques.

However, they had always practiced the Breathing Body Refining Technique, a method passed down from the time of the Human Emperor.

Li Chang’an also took the time to study this Cultivation Method carefully. He discovered that their claim of being the Human Emperor’s descendants was not entirely baseless. The Breathing Body Refining Technique could constantly transform and enhance a Cultivator’s physical might. When cultivated to an advanced Realm, it surprisingly achieved similar results to the Martial Dao, albeit through a different approach.

The only difference was that the Martial Dao focused on enhancing a Martial Artist’s combat prowess, whereas the Breathing Body Refining Technique pursued the apex of physical strength.

Unfortunately, the complete Breathing Body Refining Technique had been lost long ago with the Human Emperor’s death. Otherwise, if these people of Hell had possessed the complete Cultivation Method, they would have amassed immense power over so many years of practice.

Nevertheless, the Breathing Body Refining Technique practiced by the Hell Humans still provided Li Chang’an with tremendous inspiration, allowing him to develop an entirely new branch on the foundation of his original Martial Dao.

In those years, aside from his daily cultivation, Li Chang’an spent most of his time reading the documents in Hell’s archives.

The Hell Humans’ method of recording history was clearly more systematic than that of the humans in the outside world.

They not only chronicled the trajectory of their people’s development separately but also meticulously categorized all sorts of miscellaneous texts.

According to a female Hell Human named Ah Ma, who had features like an octopus, the reason their records were so detailed was that this branch of the Human Emperor’s descendants had endured a long period with nothing to do.

Under such circumstances, cultivation and organizing their archives became their only ways to pass the time.

This, admittedly, was a great convenience for Li Chang’an. When he reviewed the records, he not only saved a great deal of time but could also gain a more direct understanding of events from the distant past.

Furthermore, because the Breathing Body Refining Technique and the Martial Dao achieved similar results, the Hell Humans made rapid progress when they began cultivating the Martial Dao.

In just two hundred years of practice, many of the Hell People reached the Perfection stage of their Martial Arts Realm. Considering their long lifespans, the speed of their Cultivation growth could only be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.

「Meanwhile.」

As Li Chang’an spread the Martial Dao and integrated it with a modified Breathing Body Refining Technique, his status among the Hell Humans rose significantly.

Hell was isolated and underdeveloped, having had no contact with the outside world for countless years.

To the humans living in Hell, Li Chang’an’s arrival was like opening a window in a sealed room, offering them their first glimpse of the world outside.

Through Li Chang’an, they learned about the state of the outer world and the harsh conditions its people endured.

Lacking any real power of their own, the humans of the outside world had no choice but to become vassals to the bandits of the Celestial Realm, forced to supply the so-called Power of Incense, generation after generation, to those unproductive vampires.